Mount Fuji, Lake Yamanaka

We drove over to Lake Yamanaka which is the highest lake surrounding Mount Fuji. 

It was a long three hour drive over pretty boring expressways where speed limits are 100 km/h and for the last hour or so we were on dual carriageways through literally dozens of tunnels with a speed limit of 70km/h. So we were dawdling along. 

The topography here is quite severe with tree covered mountains and hills obscuring the view at most points. We climbed to a high point I think of 766m. 

The hotel driveway consisted of numerous hairpin bends and I felt it a good opportunity seeing as it was deserted to test the limited slip differential in the car. It seemed to work just fine. In fact the hotel driveway could double up as a hill climb as it climbs steeply from the lake up to the hotel which is some height up from the lake. 

We checked in and from our hotel room we could see the lake, but it was quite cloudy so we presumed that Mount Fuji must be on the other side. 

I was tired after all the driving so we had a siesta and awoke at 8.30pm. We decided just to go to a nearby restaurant and pick up some beer from the 7 Eleven. These places are just everywhere and handily they have a cashpoint that we can use our cards in and it's in English. So if you're going to Japan all you need to do is use the 7 Eleven for cash and they are absolutely everywhere. 

We opted to try Denny's which is an American chain just for convenience as I didn't fancy driving far. It was burger fair and I have to be reasonable in saying the meat was good enough, but that's about all I can say about it. 

We headed back to the hotel armed with some beers and ready to do the inevitable blogging! 

The next morning I awoke at 6.53am. I opened the curtains and then, wow, there it was, Mount Fuji, right before my eyes! 

Here is the picture I took: 

Mark took a pic of me after breakfast in the hotel gardens.

It's amazing how it changes as the cloud passes by the mountain. 

Mark took some pictures as well: 

Hotel Mount Fuji is a funny place, mostly full of Japanese tourists, the hotel itself has the obvious impressive lobby as so many hotels do, but the room was very much in need of a refurb and the bed was a standard double, so tiny! Still it was spotlessly clean and breakfast was included which was a mix of Japanese food and western food. Some oddities came out of this, like filter coffee with the milk already added!